Letters - January 4, 2019

As the new year gets under way, ex-Forces men and women who are out of work in the Fylde coast will be looking ahead to what 2019 might have in store for them.

This can be a challenging time of year for veterans. Those with mental or physical health conditions who do not have a job or a close support network can feel particularly isolated.

At The Poppy Factory, we know that ex-Service men and women who are wounded, injured or sick will still flourish in the right working environment. In return, the skills they have honed in the military bring enormous benefits to their employers. The contribution made by meaningful work to positive mental health cannot be overstated.

The Poppy Factory’s employability team works closely with individuals in their communities, helping to boost their confidence and skills and look for the right job opportunities. We help with everything from CV writing and interview preparation to training and in-work support, making sure our veterans feel comfortable in whatever new roles they take up.

This year I hope many more businesses and organisations across the North West will consider the value that veterans can add to their workforce. Our team stands ready to help more wounded, injured and sick veterans find a way to fulfil their potential in the civilian world.

Deirdre Mills

Chief Executive

The Poppy Factory

Nostalgia

My dad was officer with the elephants

What a surprise to see my father in the Gazette this evening, he is the policeman in the picture with the elephants. I was only a small child when my dad used to help with the animals from the circus, both walking them down Talbot Road when they arrived by train and taking them across the prom to bathe in the sea each day.

He unfortunately died nearly 35 years ago but pictures like these keep his memory alive.

Suzanne Newton

Via email

EU

Proof of the Brexit pudding is in eating

The current brexit impasse and clamour for another referendum have prompted the launch of liberalbrexiteers.com which revisits the case for Brexit from a liberal point of view and endeavours to reassure the majority who voted for Brexit two years ago that we took the right decision to leave the EU.

liberalbrexiteers.com portrays the EU as an outdated 19th century notion, an idea whose time has gone, left behind by advances in communications which have rendered geography in politics irrelevant. Further, it suggests that the EU will be an international irrelevance by 2050, thanks to shrinking market share, GDP and population. Our future international relations must be less focused on the seven per cent of the world’s population who live in the EU and more with the 93 per cent who do not.

Calls for another Brexit ballot are wrong-headed. The last referendum cost £137m, lasted four months and was divisive. A second referendum and/or a third general election in the space of four years will achieve nothing other than accentuate these divisions.

Moreover, another referendum subverts the democratic rule that we vote in the light of our experience, on the understanding that we may vote differently in a following ballot if things do not work out.

We have to experience Brexit first before we can make a judgement. We can always decide to renew our membership of the EU in the future if our experience of Brexit indicates that our leaving was a mistake but the proof of the Brexit pudding is in the eating, not in endless speculation about how palatable it will be.

So we don’t need another ballot; we just need Parliament to do what we told them to do after they decided to ask us what we wanted. LibDem, Labour and Conservative politicians started this hare running in 2015 when they united to vote for a referendum. They must unite now to deliver Brexit.

David Green

A Liberal Brexiteer

moon landing

Bring light to the people in China too

I congratulate the Chinese for bringing ‘light’ to the ‘dark side of the moon’. It’s a pity that the country’s policy of suppressing free thought isn’t as enlightened.

Nathan Skelly

North Shore